The Game (Album)

The Game
Studio album by Queen
Publication (s)	June 30, 1980
Label (s)	EMI / Parlophone ; Elektra , Hollywood Records (USA)
Format (s)	LP , MC , CD , DVD-Audio (2003)
Genre (s)	skirt
Title (number)	10
running time	35:39
occupation	John Deacon - bass , electric - and acoustic guitar Brian May - electric and acoustic guitars, vocals, synthesizers , piano in Save Me . Freddie Mercury - vocals, piano, acoustic guitar in Crazy Little Thing Called Love , synthesizer. Roger Taylor - drums , vocals, electric guitar, synthesizer (possibly also electric bass)
Studio (s)	Musicland Studios in Munich
chronology Live Killers (1979) The Game Flash Gordon (1980)

The Game is the eighth studio album by the British rock group Queen , released in 1980 . With Another One Bites the Dust and Crazy Little Thing Called Love it contains two of their greatest single hits. The Game marks the height of Queen's commercial success in the US. It was on this album that the longstanding collaboration with co-producer Mack began .

The album

The recordings for The Game extended over a significantly longer period than the previous albums. They took place for the first time between June 1979 and May 1980 in the Munich Musicland Studios . At the time the LP was released on June 30th, three advance singles had already been released. On the same day, Queens began its largest overall North American tour, which ended in September 1980 with three consecutive concerts at Madison Square Garden .

The economical instrumentation is characteristic of the sound of the album. More than with other works by Queen, the rhythm section - Taylor's drums and above all Deacon's bass - is in the foreground. A synthesizer can be heard for the first time , as the short liner notes explicitly indicate: "This album includes the first appearance of a synthesizer (an Oberheim OBX) on a Queen album" . According to Brian May , the initiative to use this instrument, long spurned by the band, came from Taylor. On this album the synthesizer was used relatively cautiously, for example in the tracks Save Me , Sail Away Sweet Sister and Rock It . During the recordings, the band worked for the first time with the German sound engineer Mack , who as co-producer made a significant contribution to the sound of the album and introduced Queen to new recording techniques, which is expressed in the drum loop of Another One Bites the Dust , among other things . With the description “less is more”, Mack characterized one of the fundamental aims of the recordings.

In contrast to the previous LPs, the eighth studio album should be named after one of its titles. There was a suggestion to name this album - like the opener released as a single in advance - "Play the Game". However, Roger Taylor expressed concern because the term implicitly also means conforming to the establishment - which Taylor had little sympathy for. So the album got the shortened title "The Game".

The black and white photo of the silver album cover shows the band members standing in front of Taylor's drums and wearing leather jackets. The picture was taken in September 1979 as part of the recording of the video clip for the first single Crazy Little Thing Called Love , on the cover of which the same photo is reproduced in color. For the later CD editions of The Game , the record companies sometimes used a different image from the same photo session, which makes the lettering on Deacon's T-shirt ("Bike It") visible. The cover concept for the album comes from Queen; the design was created by Cream. The photographs of the front cover and the four individual portraits on the inner sleeve of the LP were taken by Peter Hince and Christopher Hopper. During the creation of this album, Freddie Mercury changed his appearance: The cover of the single Play the Game , released a month before The Game , shows for the first time - as does the portrait on the album cover - Mercury's mustache characteristic of the eighties .

In 2003, a version of the album mixed in surround sound 5.1 was released on DVD-Audio . Since not all of the multi-track tapes used in the original mix of Coming Soon were available, the surround version features some vocal recordings that differ from the original release.

Track list

Page 1:

1. Play the Game (Mercury) - 3:31
2. Dragon Attack (May) - 4:19
3. Another One Bites the Dust (Deacon) - 3:38
4. Need Your Loving Tonight (Deacon) - 2:49
5. Crazy Little Thing Called Love (Mercury / 1979) - 2:43

Page 2:

1. Rock It (Prime Jive) (Taylor) - 4:33
2. Don't Try Suicide (Mercury) - 3:53
3. Sail Away Sweet Sister [To the sister I never had] (May) - 3:33
4. Coming Soon (Taylor) - 2:51
5. Save Me (May) - 3:49

The songs Crazy Little Thing Called Love , Sail Away Sweet Sister , Coming Soon and Save Me were recorded from June to July 1979, the other tracks between February and May 1980. With a total playing time of less than 36 minutes, The Game is , apart from soon then released the soundtrack Flash Gordon , Queen's shortest album. The title A Human Body, written and sung by Roger Taylor, appeared as the B-side of the single Play the Game .

According to Freddie Mercury, Crazy Little Thing Called Love composed within a few minutes in the bathtub of a Munich hotel.

Another One Bites the Dust was not originally planned as a single, but was often selected from the album by radio DJs and thus became a number 1 hit in the USA.

The album itself does not contain any information about cast details. The lead vocals in Rock It and Coming Soon are from Mercury and Taylor, respectively; Sail Away Sweet Sister was sung by May and Mercury. The producers of the album are Queen; it was co-produced and recorded by Mack .

Equipment

In addition to the instruments used by the musicians, their manufacturers are indicated:

• Synthesizer : Oberheim OBX
• Electric guitar: Red Special , Fender Telecaster
• Piano : Bösendorfer
• Acoustic guitar: Martin Guitar

Single releases

A total of five songs were also released as single, three of them before the album was released:

Crazy Little Thing Called Love - Released October 5, 1979 (UK) and December 7, 1979 (US); B-side: We Will Rock You (live) or Spread Your Wings (live).

Save Me - Release Date: Jan 25, 1980 (UK); B-side: Let Me Entertain You (live) or Sheer Heart Attack (live).

Play the Game - Release Date: May 30, 1980 (UK); B-side: A Human Body .

Another One Bites the Dust - Released August 12, 1980 (US) and August 22, 1980 (UK); B-side: Don't Try Suicide or Dragon Attack .

Need Your Loving Tonight - Released November 18, 1980 (US); publishes among others in Canada and Japan; B-side: Rock It (Prime Jive) .

The singles appeared on the labels EMI (Europe and others) and Elektra (North America and others). Crazy Little Thing Called Love was released as the band's first single in some countries such as Germany, also in the 12 ″ maxi single format; just like the 7 ″ single , the 12 ″ editions only contain the album version of the piece. All live versions under the B-sides come from the previous Queen album Live Killers .

Reception in the media

Single Crazy Little Thing Called Love

Record Mirror (Great Britain), 1979: “Well done, Queen. This is totally unlike any other singles you've released. It's slick, smooth, fingersnapping and Freddie's voice suits it down to the ground. "

Album The Game

Record Mirror (Great Britain), 1980: “This album is a straight kick into the goal [...], it's like winning the men's singles at Wimbledon . [...] This album isn't exactly high camp Queen either. Gone, nearly forever, are those halcyon over the top days of fruit cake harmonies. Nowadays Queen have cut down considerably on such ploys, but there's still enough left for their brandmark. "

Rolling Stone (USA), 1980: “[…] Queen have shifted their sights from heavy-metal flash to stripped-down rock & roll. Maybe they realized that they'd come to a dead end, that it was time to ditch the cold, bombastic eclecticism and overweening arrogance that made News of the World and Jazz so offensive. Or maybe they just figured it'd be good to try fresh terrain. Whatever the reasons, it's nice to hear a Queen album with songs, not 'anthems.' [...] Black leather jackets, echo chambers, funky handclaps, prominent bass lines and sparse instrumentation - these guys know how this music should sound and feel, but they can't bend enough to get with it. "

Sounds (Great Britain), 1980: “The many thousands of their faithful fans will declare 'The Game' to be just what they wanted […] but the journalists won't even recognize its existence. 'The Game' is a colossal mountain of unmovable mediocrity. It is old and tired and bland and blinkered. It purrs with self-satisfaction. "

All Music Guide (USA): “[…] this album was the first time they made a glossy, unabashed pop album, one that was designed to sound exactly like its time. [...] Gone are the bombastic orchestras of guitars and with them the charging, relentless rhythms that kept Queen grounded even at their grandest moments. [...] it's a grand, state-of-the-art circa 1980 pop album that still stands as one of the band's most enjoyable records. "

Record Collector (Great Britain), 2003, refers to the DVD-Audio output: “[…] the album caught Queen as they turned into the monster chart-topping pop / rock act of Live Aid fame and […] it provided Queen with much-needed hit singles and a further dose of credibility. […] Oddly, unlike the stunning DVD-A version of A Night At The Opera , The Game sounds slightly thinner, with less bottom-end. […] The harmonies and instrumental interplay are breathtaking, however, […]. [...] this is still infinitely better than the stereo CD. "

Chart positions and sales figures

album

The Game brought Queen the height of her commercial success in the US. As the only album the band reached the top of Billboard - Charts where it stayed for five weeks. It achieved 4 times platinum status in the United States and 5 times platinum in Canada, as well as gold awards in Germany, Great Britain and Austria, among others.

Highest chart positions	Weeks in charts	countries	Awards (sales figures)
1		Argentina
1	18th	Great Britain	gold
1		Canada	Platinum (5 times)
1		Portugal
1	43	United States	Platinum (4 times)
2		Germany	gold
2		Netherlands	gold
2	17th	Norway
5	17th	Japan
5	30th	Austria	gold
7th	7th	Sweden
9	23	Italy

With rank 2, The Game achieved the best placement of a Queen album in the German charts to date.

Singles

Crazy Little Thing Called Love and Another One Bites the Dust were the only Queen singles (each for several weeks) to reach number 1 in the US charts. Deacon's Another One Bites the Dust is one of the best-selling singles in the United States and has received multiple platinum awards. In addition to the countries listed in the following table, this song also reached number 1 in the respective singles charts in Argentina , Guatemala , Mexico and Spain .

	AT	AU	CA	CH	DE	GB	NL	NO	US
Crazy Little Thing Called Love	9	1	1	5	13	2 ( G )	1 (G)	8th	1 (G)
Save me	-	-	32	-	42	11	5	7th
Play the game	-	-	19th	8th	40	14th	15th	6th	42
Another one bites the dust	6th	5	1	8th	6th	7th	14th		1 ( P )
Need Your Loving Tonight	nv	nv	36	nv	nv	nv	nv	nv	44

Queens Another One Bites the Dust is ranked 34th on Billboard's 2008 list of the top singles in the US overall for the past 50 years .

Reception by other musicians

The American musician Grandmaster Flash used samples from Another One Bites the Dust in his groundbreaking hip-hop single The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel in 1981 . In the same year, Weird Al Yankovic released a parody entitled Another One Rides the Bus on his EP of the same name ; this version can also be found on the 1983 debut album "Weird Al" Yankovic . The new CD edition of Queen's album The Game , released by Hollywood Records in 1991, contains a bonus track remix of the song by "RAK and Jack Benson" . The following year, this label released another "Alternative Mix" of Another One Bites the Dust by Canadian musician and producer Dave 'Rave' Ogilvie on its promo sampler Freak Show . Both the cover version of this song, released in 1996 by Captain Jack from the compilation album Queen - Dance Traxx I , as well as the one released in 2006 under the name “Queen vs. The Miami Project “released remix placed in several European countries in the singles charts.

In 1998, Wyclef Jean's rendition of Another One Bites the Dust , based on samples from the original version, appeared on the soundtrack of the film Small Soldiers . The single released under the artist name "Queen / Wyclef Jean featuring Pras & Free" reached number 5 in the British charts and was thus placed two places higher than Queen's original single. This rap version is also included on the 1999 Queen compilation Greatest Hits III .

The founder of the American stoner rock band Eagles of Death Metal , Jesse “The Devil” Hughes , said about Another One Bites the Dust : “Queen are one of those unique bands that is made up of truly gifted musicians - the minds of composers. And being able to take all that ability and channel it and control it, is best evidenced and best exemplified with this song. [...] Combined with a simple, driving drum beat that, I dare say, has not one single fill, and a non-alternating bass pattern. Simplicity in its purest form. " Ed Kowalczyk, singer and guitarist of the American alternative rock band Live , remembered the same song: " It was one of the first songs I could play on guitar. And I have a distinct memory from the days of vinyl of a neighbor and I playing it backwards looking for messages. If you do that it definitely says: 'It's fun to smoke marijuana'. "

Those performers who recorded cover versions of Crazy Little Thing Called Love include, for example, The Chipmunks (1980, album Chipmunk Punk ), the American country singer Dwight Yoakam (1999, among others released as a single), the Canadian artist Michael Bublé (2003, album Michael Bublé ), the British pop band McFly (2004, single Room on the 3rd Floor ) and Diana Ross feat. Brian May (2006, album I Love You ). The English band Radiohead covered this song for MTV in the 1990s . As a guest singer of the remaining Queen members, Robert Plant interpreted this title in 1992 at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert .

As part of Guns n 'Roses' " Use Your Illusion Tour", which lasted from 1991 to 1993 , Axl Rose sang an excerpt from Sail Away Sweet Sister as an intro to Sweet Child o' Mine . The cover version of Save Me by the band SheSays , which was released as a single from the album Want It in 2007 , hit the Austrian single charts.

Out-takes

Queen's album Made in Heaven , which was released in 1995, contains previously unreleased recordings from the sessions for the album The Game : In It's a Beautiful Day , the three remaining band members used the vocals recorded at the time by Freddie Mercury. In addition to the two versions of this song contained on the album, a mix was released (as an additional track on the single Heaven for Everyone ), which combines the two album versions of It's a Beautiful Day into a single track.

The instrumental jam session - Demo Sandbox , which was also created during the recording for The Game , was presented at a meeting of the Queen's International Fan Club, but has not yet been officially released. Also unpublished was the recording of the title Play the Game , on which Andy Gibb's vocals can be heard.

Some of the ideas and drafts that Roger Taylor was unable to realize in The Game eventually ended up on his first solo album Fun in Space in 1981 .

See also

• List of number one hits in the Netherlands (1979)
• List of number one hits in the UK charts (1980)
• List of number one hits in the US (1980)

Web links

• Queenpedia: The Game - pictures of the album and single covers (Engl.)
• Justin Shirley-Smith: The Game DVD-A (from: brianmay.com ) (Engl.)
• Mack, the man who reinvented Queen (from: www.deaky.com) - Interview with Mack (engl.)
• Song Analysis: Crazy Little Thing Called Love (www.queensongs.info) - Song Analysis (Engl.)
• queen.musichall.cz: The Game - Interwiewaussagen of the band members (Engl.)

Sources and Notes

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Further articles only available in the English language Wikipedia: Oberheim OB-X - Record Mirror - Record Collector .
2. ^ Brian May: "Roger's really the guy who introduced us to synthesizers." Quoted in queen.musichall.cz: The Game .
3. ↑ ^{a b} Reinhold Mack, Esq. Producer and engineer talks about using technology creatively. In: iZotope and Brian May, in: On the Record , 1982 (Queen Archives)
4. ↑ Taylor, 1980: “It was suggested that we call the album Play The Game , and I don't like the idea of ​​that; basically, that means, in English, let's go along with the establishment. I don't particularly sympathize with that view. ”Quoted from Georg Purvis: Queen. Complete Works. London: Reynolds & Hearn, 2007, ISBN 978-1-905287-33-8 , p. 231.
5. ↑ Quoted from Jacky Gunn, Jim Jenkins: Queen. As It Began. Sidgwick & Jackson, London 1992, p. 127, ISBN 0-283-06052-2 .
6. ^ Robin Smith: Queen play and win . In: Record Mirror , June 21, 1980, p. 16. (See QueenCuttings )
7. ↑ Steve Pond, in: Rolling Stone , No. 326, September 18, 1980.
8. ↑ Robbi Millar: The loser. Queen - 'The Game' . In: Sounds , July 5, 1980, p. 38. (See QueenCuttings )
9. ↑ Stephen Thomas Erlewine: Queen - The Game. Review. In: All Music Guide .
10. ^ Queen - The Game (DVD-A). In: Record Collector ,? / 2003, p. 118. (See QueenCuttings )
11. ↑ ^{a b} everyhit.com - UK Top 40 Hit Database ; Album artist 14 - Queen on tsort.info . The album The Game achieved platinum status according to Queenonline.com (The Game) , while it reached gold status according to tsort.info.
12. ↑ ^{a b} Library and Archives Canada: RPM ( The Game ( Memento of the original from July 15, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The        archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice . , Crazy Little Thing Called Love  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this note. , Save Me  ( page no longer available , search in Web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Play the Game  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this note. , Another One Bites the Dust ( Memento of the original from November 30, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The    archive link was automatically used and not yet tested. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Need Your Loving Tonight  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as broken. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ) .
13. ^ ^{A b c d} Andrew Young: Queen International Album Chart Positions (USA, Japan, Netherlands, Italy); RIAA's Gold & Platinum Program searchable database (USA).
14. ↑ ^{a b} charts surfer ; www.ifpi.de .
15. ↑ ^{a b} norwegiancharts.com ( The Game ; Crazy Little Thing Called Love ; Save Me ; Play the Game ) .
16. ↑ ^{a b} austriancharts.at ( The Game , Crazy Little Thing Called Love , Another One Bites the Dust ) ; IFPI Austria .
17. ↑ swedishcharts.com ( The Game , Another One Bites the Dust ) .
18. ↑ Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), see also the English language Wikipedia: List of best-selling singles in the United States .
19. ^ Gunn / Jenkins, London 1992, p. 133.
20. ^ ^{A b c} Andrew Young: Queen International Singles Chart Positions (USA, Japan, Netherlands, Australia); RIAA (USA).
21. ↑ hitparade.ch ( Crazy Little Thing Called Love , Play the Game , Another One Bites the Dust ) .
22. ^ The Billboard Hot 100 All-Time Top Songs (from the chart's first 50 years, August 1958 through July 2008) ( Memento from September 13, 2008 in the Internet Archive ).
23. ↑ ^{a b} See e.g. B. everyhit.com - UK Top 40 Hit Database ; Charts surfers ; finnishcharts.com .
24. ↑ ^{a b} One Vision… Freddie 60th Tribute. In: Classic Rock , October 2006, issue 98, p. 41. (See QueenCuttings )
25. ↑ austriancharts.com: SheSays - Save Me .